Alright, we're in Psalm 56 again. A lot of titles can be made out
of this. I put the Believers Tears because
we're the ones that cry them. It's what I have. It's what you
have. Let me make it the Bottle of
Tears, capital B. I hope we can see that bottle
today. Here in Psalm 56 verse 8, David's writing and he says,
thou tellest my wonderings. You know everything. You're the
one that commands my steps. You command everything. Put thou
my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in my book? Are
they not in my book? And I thought, you know, everybody
cries. Everybody cries. It might be external, there's
tears that fall down, and it might be internal. Internal. I don't outwardly cry too much,
but sometimes my heart works out so much my eyes sweat. That's
what one guy said. I ain't cryin', my eyes are sweatin'.
Uh-huh. We do, and even if they don't,
if somebody didn't have tear ducts, somebody didn't have eyes,
we cry, we cry on the inside. Everybody cries. But David cried. And he asked the Lord to put
his tears in a bottle. And then he asked a rhetorical
question. That's a question that don't need to be answered. The
answer's obvious. Are they not in thy book? He
said, put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy
book? This is how we experience it.
This is how believers cry. This is the order that it comes
to us. This is the way we see it and the way we experience
it. Not every human that sheds a tear We all do that, everybody
cries, but the believers' tears, those that he's sent his word
and messengers and wagons of provision that we looked at last
hour, those that he's done a work in, those that he's drew near,
we're experiencing them in this order. I told you a few messages
ago when we was looking there at Peter crying bitterly, he
wept bitterly, and the tears do not make it real. A lot of
people's cried. Esau cried, Judas cried, a bunch
of people cried. Most people have emotional experiences.
But if there's a reality, if there's a work of grace in somebody's
heart, there's going to be some tears. If there's a true conviction
of sin, there's going to be some weeping. Better on this earth
than weeping and gnashing of teeth in the eternity to come. It's called salvation here. It's
the Lord working in somebody. But there's going to be tears,
true tears. And the believers' tears are experienced in this
order. We cry the tears. We bow to the providence and
the provision of the Lord's bottle that He catches them in, that
He keeps them in. And that's really the bottle
they came from, too. We see that. But how we experience it? We
cry. We see the Lord's provision and Him pitting us and taking
care of us. And then we understand that these
tears the Lord made come to pass because He willed it. It's written
in his book. These tears I have are on purpose. And we weep and we mourn over
sin. And we go through this experience.
The Lord gives it. It's his bottle. It's his tears. It's his will. He wrote it in
his book. It's purpose. And now we shed tears of joy.
He's done this for me. He loves me. He's chasing me.
That's all it is. He's a faithful father. A good
father. Makes his children mind. And
he tells them plainly for their good. And he has to tell us that
over and over and over and over again. Just like we have to tell
our children over and over and over again. And we have to be
faithful and steadfast because they won't be. He has to be faithful
and steadfast because we won't be. That's the order we experience
it in. Everyone of the Lord's people
All of them, everybody in general, really. Man's days are few and
full of trouble. But the children of God, we don't
get saved and then we're up on step, we're up on a plane like
a boat and everything's smooth sailing from then on. We're either
going into a trial, we're in a trial, or we're coming out
of a trial. That's just life. God promises
that. And the people that's just so,
there's one other thing about having a good countenance about
the Lord's providence, but the people that just have no bad
things, just their life's just peachy. I worry for them. God
said, you're gonna have trouble. I'm gonna chase my children.
If somebody ain't being chased, I can, they're gonna get it all
at once at some point. You got a big one coming, I don't
know. I'm concerned about that. But that's how we experience
it. How did this truly take place? How did this truly take place?
The Lord purposed David's tears, and the Lord purposes my tears,
and if you're his, the Lord purposes your tears. Purposes all the
other tears too, but this is talking about the believers.
He purposed it. Then, he wanted to do it. And
what he wants, he gets. That's why he wills it. Don't
use that word. He willed it to happen. It's
in his book. He wrote it down. It's gonna happen. Then he used
means and his providence to carry this out. bring it to us brought
it to come to pass his will and his purpose and then then from
eternity past when he wrote it down through the means of providence
and everything that's ever moved throughout time to bring it to
that a single water molecule comes out of my eye what'd it
take for that tear to drop everything everything tears are important
This ain't an ad for Kleenex, okay? I hope this is comfort
for you and equips you to walk through this world when you're
crying. When you're crying. It was good for me. Either we
have tears of sadness or we have tears of joy. Have you ever had
tears of boredom? I haven't. I was sad because
I was bored. But we're either sad or we're
happy. And when our tears of sadness That's when we think the Lord's
not near us, that's what David said. He wept because he thought
the Lord wasn't close to him, he couldn't see. When we're not
looking to him, we can't see him, or we're looking to this
world, or we're looking to ourselves, or we're seeing our sin, when
that's exposed to us, we weep. Joseph's brothers were tore up.
He said, where's my father? They couldn't speak, they were
shut up to sin, they were weeping, I guarantee you they was crying.
And they said, don't let your heart be troubled over that.
It's fine, you did this. Don't let it weigh on you. It's
alright, but they know who they were. Rahab was always the harlot,
isn't it? That man on the cross, still a thief on the cross, isn't
he? That's who we are. We know that we're in this body,
so he quips us. We either have tears of sadness or tears of
joy. We're looking for something else when we're sad. That's what
causes the tears. And then whenever our eyes return
to Him, when we see His providence and His purpose and who He is
and where He is and all those things, now we have tears of
joy. Those tears change. We begin crying over our sin
and we progress. That's a scary word for a lot
of people, but it's so. We transition, is that better? We transition
from tears of sadness to tears of joy because of His will, because
of His bottle. I'm giving you all my points
right now. All that's going to culminate
in us never shedding a tear again. This is His will. His purpose.
This is good. It's for His glory. And at the
end of it, there'll never be another tear. They'll be wiped
away forever. David said in Psalm 6, he goes,
I am weary with my groanings. All the night, I make my bed
to swim. You talk about a sweet psalmist's
usual poetry. My bed, he had the first waterbed.
Why? Because of tears. Tears. He said,
I water my couch with tears. The bed wouldn't do no more.
More few married men, even King David had to sleep on the couch
sometimes. He had a reason to cry. He cried in the bed, he
cried on the couch. He said, my eye is consumed because
of grief. It waxeth old because of all
mine enemies." All my enemies. I ask you that. He was crying
over his enemies. And I ask you that often. Would that be true
if he was on a deserted island? Would you be compassed about
with enemies if you were all by yourself on an island somewhere?
You betcha. Because that's the sin. I mean,
there's problems we have, and we grieve over them, too. But
it's a sin problem. That's where the true tears come
from. This is true if all my enemies
are around me. You know what I listed? Me, myself,
and I. That's my three worst enemies.
Me, myself, and I. But he says in verse 8, Thou
tellest my wonderings. You've commanded all my walking. Because it said the enemies are
counting the steps. They're watching my steps. They don't have to
watch my steps. You're the one that tells. You command my wonderings. And you know all things. You
can tell my wonderings where I've been and where I'm going.
This is your will. This is your command. He searches
the heart. He searches the heart. The almighty
holy God knows the thing of my heart. He knows the thoughts
I have. He knows the desires that I have.
And he's still gracious to me. I don't know half my thoughts,
and the ones I do have scare me. A wandering mind's the most
dangerous trip you'll ever take. The Lord looks on our hearts.
He looks on the mind. He knows your thoughts. Not your
squeaky clean outside persona you put on. When you're all by
yourself, when you close your eyes and you're alone with your
thoughts, He knows it. And He's still merciful and gracious to
the people. Who's got a God like our God? There ain't one like
Him. David, that's what he was concerned
about. He said in Psalm 51, I acknowledge my transgression, my sin is ever
before me. He says, against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil on thy side, that thou must
be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest.
Guilty. Guilty. That brings sorrow. God
ever shows you you're a sinner, you're going to cry about it.
You're going to moan. You're going to shave your head
and rinse your clothes. You're in trouble. This is real trouble. This ain't trouble on a book
and a piece of paper. This is here. Pound on your chest where
the trouble is. God be merciful, meet a sinner.
That's what you cry out. There'll be some tears involved. Psalm
42, three, David said, my tears have been my meat day and night. That seems like that's all I'm
eating on. While they continually saying to me, these tears say,
where's thy God? You ever done that after the
Lord saved you? And you're like, how could he be doing this to
me? Oh Lord, where are you in this trial? What are you showing me?
What are you teaching me? I don't see ya. So tears cry
out to me. I gave you a handout of a Brother
Spurgeon's write up on Psalm 42, 9. Why go mourning? Why we do this? David's praying to the Lord for
him to have pity on these tears. Lord, you've sent these tears,
have pity on them. And the Lord has. He has. Verse 8. Thou tellest my wanderings,
put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book? over
Malachi 3, we read, Then they that fear the Lord spake after
often one to another, and the Lord hearkened, and he heard
it. Brethren are talking together, and God listened. Well, it'd
be yea, yea, nay, and nay, huh? Lord listened, and he heard it,
and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that
feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. Those that considered
him. He has a book of remembrance.
Is he writing this down after the fact? He's not a scribe,
is he? No, that's just so we can understand
it. This was written before time. This is his will. And the hairs
of our head, we quote that often, don't we? The hairs of your head
are numbered. How sweet and nice. When was
the last time you had a hair fallout? You pay attention? Over time we do. I'm starting
to comb my hair a little different way. I'm getting a little thin.
When's the last time we paid attention to hair grew? It goes
so slow we don't pay attention, do we? The Lord numbers those.
You remember your tears? You pay attention when tears
are falling, don't you? We pay attention to those. And the Lord
condescends from his throne on glory to be attentive to each
and every one of those droplets of water that come out of our
eyes. What a thought. What a thought. Our king has numbered them. What
a thought. We'll cry when we have a need.
When the Lord gives us a new heart, and he's convinced us
of sin, he reveals himself to us, and we will cry out for mercy
with tears. With tears. Turn over to Mark
chapter 9. I thought this was interesting. Mark chapter 9. Verse 17. Mark 9, 17. And one of the multitude,
one of many, answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee
my son, which hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with the teeth,
and pineth away. And I spake unto thy disciples
that they should cast him out, cast out this demon. And they
could not. They couldn't do it. And he answered him and said,
O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? What did
this man do? He had a son that was possessed
and he took it to one of the disciples or the apostles or
something, one of the Lord's people and said, here, solve
this problem. He didn't take it to the Lord. The Lord's right
there. I appreciate people ask me to
pray for them. I want you to pray for me and
that's good. I can't do nothing different
anybody else can. If I ain't there, ask Trevor to pray for
you. Ask somebody else to pray for you. That's fine. I don't
have something special. Go to the Lord with it. I'll
pray with you. Go to the Lord with it. Take
it to the Lord. He said, oh, faithless generation, how long
shall I be with you? Right here, I'm standing. And
how long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. You want good
advice? Take it to the Lord. Go to Christ. Go to Christ. I asked my pastor
recently. I said, I got a situation come
up. I don't even know what to do. I'm pretty equipped. I handle a lot of different stuff.
I'm speechless. I have no idea. He said, ask
the Lord. That's so simple. That's a faithful
pastor is what it is. I got a good one. I'm thankful
for him. Ask him. He said, O faithless
generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer
you? Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him.
Isn't that what happened when Joseph commanded things and his
brethren went? See a pattern? This was God speaking. And they
brought him unto him. And when he saw him, straightway
the spirit tear him and fell on the ground. He wallowed and
foamed. And he asked his father, while this woman was suffering
right in front of him, How long is it ago since this came unto
him? And he said of a child, in oft times I've cast him in
the fire and into the waters to destroy him. If thou canst
do anything, if you can do anything at all, have compassion on us. Compassion. He didn't say make
my son stop foaming at the mouth. He didn't say cure my son of
the cancer that's inside of his brain. He didn't say do this
and do that and do this. He said have compassion. and
help. You're faithful to help in time
of need. We're in need. Help. Have compassion on us.
And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are
possible to him that believeth. Can you believe? And straightway the father of
the child cried out. What's it say next? And said
with tears. Luke verse 24. Look with me. And straightway
the father of the child cried out and said with tears. Where'd them tears come from?
I get way ahead of myself. The Lord purposed those tears
throughout time. He had them in a bottle, and he let them
go, and he caught them, and he put it down here on this piece
of paper so we could read 2,000 years later. Purposed tears. He cried out and said with tears,
Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. And when Jesus saw
that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul
spirit saying unto him, thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge
thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. And the spirit
cried. Well, that spirit cried too.
So did Judas and Esau and everything else, isn't it? We all cry. And
rent him sore and came out of him. And he was as one dead in
so much that many said he's dead but Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up and he arose. He arose. Those are tears of
necessity. Cry with tears. Lord, I believe,
help my unbelief. You've made me and gave me the
tears to cry to you and I don't even know what to cry for. Help
my unbelief. David said that in Psalm 116.
You have delivered my soul from death. You've delivered my eyes
from tears and you've delivered my feet from falling. Lord delivers
in those things too. Turn over Psalm 126. This is a good thing. It's a
good thing to cry. I don't know if real men cry. I know men of God cry. Psalm
126. Verse 5. There's a whole lot
in this psalm. I'll try to be brief on it. Psalm
126, verse 5. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. I didn't say they most likely
got a 95% chance of reaping joy. No. Shall. Those that sow in
tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him." Talk about bringing in the sheaves.
Well, it's only those, this is only speaking of those up in
verse one, says they're turned from their captivity. That's
the ones that sow in tears, those that's been saved, those that
the Lord has turned from their captivity, brought us out of
our bondage. The purpose tears from the Lord's
bottle. That's a great thing, it says in verse three. That's
a good thing. Why is this happening? It's good. Now I'm the big, mean, austere
older brother to tell you that. It's good. I hope I'm tender
when I do that. It's good. It's good. Look at
verse three. The Lord hath done great things
for us. Well, you're about to sow in
tears. Yeah, we're about to reap in
joy. He's done it. This is good, it's good. What
great things did Christ do for us? We have these tears, we have
tears of guilt, we have tears of fear, and we have tears of
all these other things. But we're gonna have tears of joy. We're
gonna reap in tears, and then we're gonna reap joy, or sow
in tears, and we're gonna reap joy. Why? Instead of being sad
and looking to ourselves, we're gonna look to him. Now turn over
there in Hebrews 5. Here's what's written, the purposed,
the willed tears of the Lord, and here is the bottle that they're
put in. The Lord wrote them in His book,
and He said, catch them in your bottle. Hebrews 5, verse 7, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, says, Who in the days of His flesh,
that's when He walked this earth, when he had offered up prayers
and supplications with strong crying and tears. He made our tears his own tears. He made our tears his own tears. He's the bottle. You get that? All those tears of spirit, tears
of grief, tears of shame, tears of whatever, of guilt, he bore
it. The Father put that into Christ
and He bore it for us. In days of His flesh when He
had offered up prayers and supplications and strong crying and tears unto
Him that was able to save Him from death and was heard in that
He feared, He honored the Father in all things because of who
He was. He bore those tears, that crying,
and was heard. How do we know? We got an empty
tomb. What Joseph's brethren tell all of Israel, the whole
of Israel, he's alive, he's on his throne. Though he were a
son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered,
and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him, called of God and high priest
after the order of Melchizedek. This is our Melchizedek. He's
the bottom. He's the bottom. The Lord Jesus Christ took our
tears. There was purpose before time
given to us to cry out and see our shame and our guilt and our
wondering and our unbelief. We need so much help with. We
cry with tears over. And he took that. He was the
bottle it was put in because this was what was written for
according to the scriptures. He bore that and was received
and was heard by the father because he honored the fathers. What
comes after that? Then what? What's to come? Revelation 21. Revelation 21. Does any sadness start turning
to joy? Or brother Paul says, anybody?
Does that frown turn upside down? Revelation 21 verse one. And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem. coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their
God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and
there shall be no more death. There shall be no more sorrow,
no crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. All that's put away. You know,
that's a privilege right now to comfort somebody. Don't fumble
the opportunity, right? It's a privilege to comfort our
brethren that mourn and are sad. When we're in glory, you ain't
gonna have opportunity. That'll never happen again. It'll never
happen again to be with one that couldn't make it to services
on Sunday morning because they're in so much pain or whatever.
It'll never happen again that you have the opportunity to comfort
them. Because we'll be with the great comforter. All tears will
be put away because he bore them in his body on a tree. That's
a good thing, isn't it? Does that make us cry a little
tears of joy now? You know how good that is to hear Verse 5,
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things
new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and
faithful. Christ told John, Write this down. Now go tell them.
Word for word, tell them all the words I said. That's from
last hour too. Now, when our eyes are turned from ourselves,
we're weeping tears of pain and shame and guilt and sorrow and
woe is me and everything else. When our eyes are turned from
ourselves and our pain and our sin and our suffering, and they're
turned to Christ, who bore our sin, bore our shame, he suffered
for us and died, who bottled our tears and wrote about them,
purposed it, wrote about it, then we have tears of joy, don't
we? Tears of joy. I don't want to be some cold,
stoic, hyper-Calvinist I've been called since I was a little tiny
kid. Frozen, Chosen, and everything else. I've had a lot of nasty
names that weren't true. I had a lot of nasty names that
called me it's true. A lot of nasty names that weren't true.
I had to go look it up. I'm not saying be cold and stern.
Lord's doing this. When a trial comes, when the
pain comes, when the suffering comes, cry. Cry. We don't murmur, but we groan,
don't we? We groan. Believers throughout
these scriptures have. David, did he wet his couch?
Job shaved his head and rent his clothes. Many of them cry. But remember,
remember, next time you cry, write it on your Kleenex box,
put you a sticky note. Those tears are purposed by God. to see Christ who bore your tears,
bore your sin, bore your shame, and these tears will reap joy. He promised. I can't say it to
everybody, but I can say it to whoever he is. He promised. He promised. Ask him to show you Christ in
the trial. I'll put that article I wrote there in the bulletin
again. I went to write it, and then I realized I wrote it back
in May. Whenever a trial comes, I don't just take a beating and
go. I've learned over the years to ask early and ask often. Lord,
what are you teaching me in this trial? I know I'm gonna see Christ
in it, or I'm gonna see my guilt, my unbelief. I'm gonna see something
in it. Show me. Teach me. And right
there, you can breathe just a little bit, and your eyes open up, son.
I'm crying. What did he promise? Show me
your promises. Oh, he promised to wipe all tears away. Why?
Because Christ bore my tears in himself. He purposed these
tears. This is for my good and his glory,
isn't it? I pray you can remember that the next time a tear falls.
I pray I can remember that next time a tear falls. All right.
Brother Mark.